THE CURRENCY: ITS EVILS— THEIR REMEDY. 25 



ing been carried away by James— that is, the security for the bill is 

 the legal claim which the bank has upon the property of its debt- 

 ors. We see. therefore, that legal value may be made a basis for 

 the issue of notes to serve as currency; we see, therefore, the faint 

 indication of a means whereby we may perhaps emancipate our- 

 selves from the bondage of hard money, and the worse bondage of 

 paper which pretends to bo a represpntalive of hard money. 



Let the reader not be alarmed. We abominate banks that sus- 

 pend specie payment as much as he does. The run of our argu- 

 ment leads us through this desolate valley; but we shall soon 

 emerge into the clear day. Good may come out of this dark region, 

 although we never expected to find it here. For our part, how- 

 ever, we will freely confess, in private to the reader, that we have 

 lately been so accustomed to see good come out of Nazareth that 

 we have acquired the habit of never expecting it from any other 

 quarter. Let us spend a moment, therefore, in exploring this bank- 

 ing Nazareth. 



We may notice in considering a bank that has suspended specie 

 payments: 1. The bank officers, who are servants of the stock- 

 HOLDEKS; 2. The BILLS which are issued by the bank- officers, and 

 which circulate in the community as money: and, 3. The notes of 

 the debtors of the bank, binding these debtors, which notes, depos- 

 ited in the safe, are security for the bills issued. Let us now take 

 for Illustration, a non-specie-paying bank that shall be "perfect 

 after its kind;" that is a bank whose capital shall be, in actual 

 value, literally=0. Suppose there are 100 stockholders; suppose 

 flOO.OOO worth of bills to be in circulation and that ?100,000 legal 

 value is secured to the bank by notes given by the bank's debtors. 

 These stockholders will be remarkable individuals, doing business 

 after a very singular fashion. For example: The stockholders 

 own stock in this bank; but as the whole joint stock equals zero, 

 each stock-holder evidently owns only the one-hundredth part of 

 nothing — a species of property that counts much or little, according 

 to the skillfulness with which it is administored. The stockholders, 

 through the agency of the bank-officers, issue their paper, bearing 

 NO interest; exchanging it for other paper, furnished by those 

 who receive the bills, bearing interest at the r.\te of six 

 PER cent per annum. The paper received by the bank binds the 

 debtor to the bank to pay interest: while the paper issued by the 

 bank puts it under no obligation to pay any interest at all. Thus 

 the stockholders doing business with no capital whatever, make six 

 per cent per annum on a pretended .?100.0(X) of actual value which 

 does not existl Yet, meanwhile, these stockholders furnish the 

 community with an available currency: this fact ought always to 

 be borne in mind. Non-specie-paying banks, of course, make div- 

 idends. I)\iring the suspension of 1837 and 1838. all the banks of 

 Pennsylvania made dividends, although it was prohibited in the 

 charters of most of them. After the suspension which took place 



